The Gate War
by Empty Promise
Summary: The 20th Century was shaped more so then by any other event, the Gate War. Five nations invaded by an army from another world, one filled with all manner of fantastic beast and magic far akin more to biblical miracles then a simple parlor tricks, blood would be spilled in both worlds as the wronged sought revenge, and the seeds of greater conflict on both worlds were to be sown...


I've decided to try rewriting (and branding) my most...well famous (Or infamous) story given how it seems to have gotten a relapse in interest recenty. I'll try and fix the mistake i made. The use of too many characters alongside poorly written sections and improper use of cannon matters. This is my attempt at a proper tale of Imperialism vs an Empire.

* * *

 _ **As the 19th Century drew to a close, the events that shook it were heavy on the minds of many. The rise and fall of France under Napoleon. The reformation of Europe during the congress of Vienna. The ever changing state of the powers of the western hemisphere and the rise of America still healing from the scars of a war between her states. Most of all the thoughts of two new powers, the Empire of Germany formed in the fires of Prussian wars with Austria and France, and the Empire of Japan a new comer to the world stage who in less the fifty years had begun to carved an empire out of mainland Asia.**_

 _ **Of course by 1905 new affairs and priorities governed these powers. The growing naval arms race between England and Germany, the recent world shocking defeat of Russia at the hands of Japan sowing the seeds of revolution in his mists, and America grower ever stronger in might under the leadership of a 45 year old New Yorker named Theodore Roosevelt with as much gusto as tact. In the words of the American Secretary of State**_ ** _Elihu Root "The World was busy as it was before the war came"._**

 _ **The war of course went by many names, the "Doorway War" was popular due to the term used in the English speaking press to describe the Gates, the "War" to many as many wars have become know to a generation of veterans, and even the "Unthinkable War" for a time, however today it is recalled as simply enough "The Gate War". Root was right to say the world was busy. Her great powers were concerned with carving out a piece of the ever changing natural order of governments,**_

 _ **Then the order of it all, the petty wars and gunboat diplomacy was displaced by an occurence that seemed to stop the world's events entirely. On a morning in October from Tokyo to St Petersburg doors to another realm opened revealing a power hundreds of years behind us with thoughts of pillaging and mayhem. A conflict like none before began that day, and death and destruction did indeed occur as the world order was thrown to the wind forever by an event equal to a spanner in the works of history...**_

 **\- W.P Lydon, _The Enraged Wolves: A History of The Gate War_ , Touchstone books copyright 1954**

* * *

 **Alnus Hills** **, Falmart**

Maximus's middle name was Pa. Named for the god of revenge Palapon his father had hoped his son would avenge the arm lost fighting the Vassal states when he'd been a younger man. Aquila had joined the legion at nineteen years and had seen his share of battles, from the frozen north to the southern plains. He had fought his way to the rank of Centurion, the backbone of the Legion's masses and never been prouder when he had first donned the crested head dress. His father had never gotten the chance to see his son's success, but Aquila knew he watched over him from the life beyond.

Stepping up a small foothill the Alnus valley lay majority of the Empire's might camped. In the early morning hours cooking fires lit the dawn as thick as light pests, the red tents of the Legion streching as far as his eyes could sight. A force as larger as the Army that had swept the frozen north the of cursed tribe of the Kalkhan in the Arctic War two hundred years before. His own elders had thrown blood into the harsh snows for the mighty violet banner. Actions that he hoped to live up to one day if he were to meet his end at the hands of the enemy. Half of the entire Legion was here now. Waiting for the word hoped for from the shortest Legionary to the highest officer.

To attack.

A messenger he met brought back news from the generals that was pleasing. The invasion was to begin at midday. The men feed one last hearty meal and marched through the five Gates of Alnus to another land ripe for the pickings. The Empire if whispers were to be believed, was hoping to restore the prestige lost through the peace of the last half century, no amount of campaigning against pesky tribes wouldn't fix what it took a true victory to achieve. Soon enough the talk of the sagging of the Imperial lion's mane would cease.

Glory would come again, with it the riches of conquest.

* * *

 _ **The**_ ** _Saderan Empire_** _ **in 1905 (687 Imperial calendar) was prepared to invade through the Gates at Alnus following months of planing when mages had realized the Gates were soon to open again. Tracked via the alignment of the planets and word of divine**_ ** _worshipers, they planed to stage a raid to another world, to pillage for several weeks and take slave and property in an episode they expected to be trivial at best in terms of danger._**

 ** _No army could fight off an attack from within it's borders so easily could it? Besides the Gates were of the gods, and the gods would never forsake the empire would they?_**

 _ **No definitive origin of the Gates exists, but legend claims the gods built them. Evidence does suggestion in our own past gates have been opened before to our world, the Roman influences of the Empire make that clear, as does scattered text of a "Lost Legion" vanishing in Europe shortly before the fall of Rome to the**_ ** _Visigoths in 410 AD*. The story matches the early records of the Empire's ancestors, and explains the Neo-Latin like tongue they speak._**

 ** _The Five Gates at Alnus have the ability to link worlds to one another through cutting a hole through "the fabric of space"*, this explains the diversity of species found in Falmart from elves to dragons. Scientists have yet to uncover the mysteries of them, what the Gates are made of, and how they can tear holes in space even so long after the war's ending. All we know for sure is they open and close at random, the period can last anywhere from a few hours to upwards of forty five years and counting, records state they'll show signs of this long before closing off completely, until then the powers of Earth have been monitering them in case such an event ever begins to transpire._**

 ** _Whatever their purpose or how they function, Saderan marched her armies through them in on October 3rd 1905 and changed the world._**

 *** This Date brings upon the common question "If the Empire began in 410 AD, why does it's own history seem shorter in the span of years then Earth's?" Modern historians are still unsure of a well rounded answer, but it came be assumed that time works differently in Falmare, or early record keeping in the empire's ranks was poor indeed.**

 *** This term was first used by Professor** **Albert Einstein's paper "** _ **Mechanics of World to World Travel**_ **" from 1924**

 **\- W.P Lydon, _The Enraged Wolves: A History of The Gate War,_ Touchstone books copyright 1954**

* * *

 **Surrey, England**

The sound of running shock Arthur Conan Doyle from his work on a newspaper serial set in the Hundred Years War. He placed his pen down Ms Pennsington, his house women. She wrapped on the study door loudly and he cursed her for that. His wife Louisa was resting a few rooms away, her breath was becoming harder and harder for her to take, and the doctors had yet to give him anything more then "bed rest" as a way to help her. He'd been told it was the dreaded "consumption" Tuberculosis. He'd spent his early days at medical school and knew the agony his wife was in, and he wouldn't dare let someone add to the pain.

He stood up swiftly and opened the door, Ms Pennsington's face was grim he assumed due to the scolding he'd give her, but after a moment he realized it was something else entirely.

"Mr Doyle sir...i was out fetching some things for dinner tonight when i heard something has happened in London. The telegraph office is buzzing with people but all they could say was its been an...attack."

Doyle was shocked. An attack by who? Another nation was unlikely, why attack the capital, and how would they get through the Royal Navy? More likely some ruffians, the Finians most likely. He was a Scotsman himself but he had learned to hate the damned Irish terrorists, they'd been quiet for the past few years but perhaps they were making a comeback? But what was this attack, a bombing or some sort of raid?

With more questions then answers Doyle grabbed his coat from it's place hanging on the wall and placed his bowler hat on his head. Ms Pennsington looked shocked when he explained he'd go into London to see for himself.

"Sir you can't be serious about that, you could be killed"!

"That i could be, but somethings happened and i sure as hell won't sit by, besides they'll need anyone they can get to treat the injured if it's as large as you say." He went into the his desk draw and dug around for a moment, retrieving a Webley pattern revolver, a box of rounds both coated in dust having seen no use in five years and his doctor's bag. Loading it and putting the snub nosed pistol in his coat pocked walked out into the foyer and with his hand on the door looked at Ms Pennsington one last time.

"If Louisa wakes, do not tell her of this or where I've gone. The stress would do her no good" he said sternly before lightening up a bit "Don't worry, i'm sure they Bobbies will have this sorted out quickly enough. Were England after all, no one's made the mistake of picking a fight with us and come out any better in the long run have they"?

Running down the cobblestone street towards the station, Doyle could see a train idling. He quickly payed for his ticket without fuss and boarded, taking the car closet to the engine. Sitting one of unconformable seats he waited until the train came to life once more, the whistle whined and with a great puffing and chugging the train began moving down the track towards London.

* * *

 **Between Worlds**

The low ruble and shuffle of the armored masses rung in Aquila's ears. The darkness of the tunnel that made up the Gate's interior seemed to eat any light it came across. The torches carried by the guides through it only lit a few paces around them, ahead and behind the tiny flaming specks marked the path forwards and aft. Ahead though, he could spy a light. White like snow at the end of the tunnel.

The line came to a halt like a line of toppling trees. Beside the foot soldiers men on horseback filed by The Cavalry as was doctrine went first folowed by the demi-human forms of orks and swine. The infantry behind them waiting what seemed an eternity to get it's own turn. Ahead they broke into a trout and then with a horn blare they charged forwards into the light war cries ringing from their lungs. The footmen seemed to wait ages in minutes, but a horn sounded only a dozen minutes after the cavalry and the long files began moving again.

As it drew closer the outside seemed to appear through the haze of light shining bright. Advancing through it he shouted over his back to the Centuria of eighty men he lead "Ready Legionaries. The enemy will soon be upon us!" He lied of course. Unless the Gate appeared inside a military base or a large city the legion likely wouldn't see any major resistance for at the least several hours. As his feet hit the new world the first thing Aquilia realized was how similar the ground was. The Gate had appeared in the middle of a road of some sort, and the stones that topped it were as flat as any built by the Empire. It spoke well of the enemy.

The road was wider then any he'd ever seen, four times the length of an Imperial one. Towards the middle some sort of metallic track had been laded out with wood boars lining the bottom. Strange. Stranger was the gargled cries that seemed to echo in the distance. Bodies littered the streets, dressed in odd garmets that seemed too big for the wearers. The women's adorn with color like that of a Legion's guide on. The features of the people were different too. All hair the color of night, faces flat with eyes the shape of stones underfoot, and shorter then the average Imperial too.

The buildings too were odd. Made of what he realized after a moment was light wood and paper just as diverse in color as the clothes he had seen before.

"A single flame could burn it all" he said under his breath as they moved on following the cry of a mounted officer. The cavalry had swept aside what resistance they encountered, after a few minutes they found a body dressed in dark blue slumped onto the curb in a pool of blood. In it's grasp was a sword, thinner and longer then that of a legionaries. The man was some sort of warrior, or had been anyway, and he had died fighting it seemed.

An honorable death if one was ever desired.

On the odd track ahead lay...a wagon of some sort, covered over the top with open side it lay with it's wheels on the track. "A tracked wagon of some sort"? he heard someone behind him ask. He had no answer and so gave no reply as they moved on. The city was unalike any he had seen before. The shops were small larger then any homes or markets he had seen and along the side of the streets were wooden steaks taller then five men on each other's shoulders, rope running between their length that seemed to go on endlessly. He couldn't understand the purpose of such a thing.

Similar were the tiny carts he saw littering the streets. They would have been too small for a horse to pull and far too low for one too. The fact he found a man crumbled before one arms limply still hanging onto handles on the front confused him, a wagon pulled by a man? Perhaps a slave he thought, even if so it wasn't an effective means of transport at the least or so he thought so.

The officer on horseback halted them, taking a spyglass from his side he scanned the ground ahead, some sort of fenced off brushed in area lay before them. Maybe a garden for crops-

The officer fell from his mount like coins dropped onto an inn table by a barking bang that seemed to silence the world. Aquilia quickly yelled for the men to lossen their formation. Ahead in the brush almost two dozen men in blue tunics and caps sporting staffs took refuge in the bush covered patch. More barks sounded and the ground was kicked up and men fell with a deadly _ping_ as something bore into their armor.

"Damned Mages"! he yelled waving a sword over his head to rally his century. A few fool hardy magic wielders wouldn't slow the legion down. With raised shields they moved at the double towards the enemy with war cries in their throats. Numbers often meant more then weapons, but as men fell in small knots he shouted for the legionaries to take cover from the storm of whizzing death, the men huddled on either side of the road behind overturned carts and stalls, and even one odd contraption, a sort of chariot with a covered top and wheels but no place to hitch a horse.

The fast death pinged off of the cover, but much of it held fast. Behind them a line of archers let loose a flurry of arrows into the air that arched upwards before raining down into the brush. The mages cried out as half their number were struck from above. Those that remained retreated, only stopping ever few paces to trade shots with the archers as they withdrew.

Almost two dozen men lay dead in the road, blood slowly pooling beneath them, and the air smelled foul from the mage's weapons, but Aquila didn't take either the death or smell away from what had been his first fight of the new war. Rather he felt that his middle name had blessed him yet again in battle, for he still had yet to blood his own blade.

As they began marching once more forwards, he silently hoped that would change soon enough.

* * *

 _ **The Imperial Guard were formed following the Meji restoration as a defensive force for the royal family, with a similar roll as the Queen's Guard regiments that guard Buckingham palace. Formed from the most loyal samurai and retainers, by 1905 it had grown into a body of it's own consisting of several regiments armed to Imperial Army standards , having deployed in both the Russo and Sino-Japanese wars. A regiment's worth of guardsmen were stationed in Tokyo when the Gate opened, and fought as desperate**_ _ **defense to try and halt the invading Imperials. Among their ranks during the battle was a newly minted Army Lieutenant Hideki Tojo, who would become infamous for his brutal tactics and treatment of American POWs during the Philippines War some years latter.**_

 _ **The Army of the Empire that marched into Tokyo found itself like the other forces in the new world, in a state of early confusion due to the technological gap between their world and ours. The Imperial Guard was quick to set up a makeshift defensive line defended by rifles, bayonets and the odd officer's sword, the effect of firearms on the Legions troops did tip the scales more evenly for a short while but the effects wouldn't change the fact that the Legion outnumbered the Japanese heavily.**_

 _ **Oddly one of the largest early effect was the scent of gunpowder, many legionaries took it as an ill oman of things to come, a sign from the gods. In a way despite this superstition, they were not wrong. Even as Tokyo and four other cities across the world burned at the touch of an unknown invader, it would soon be clear was to be in for a short war.**_

 _ **\- W.P Lydon, The Enraged Wolves: A History of The Gate War, Touchstone books copyright 1954**_


End file.
